In theory, Employee Opinion Surveys provide a pulse of the workforce and the workplace in general. In practice, they measure the performance of executive leadership and the management team. They serve as a tool to understand what is working and to identify opportunities for improvement.
Unfortunately, collecting and compiling survey data is very time-consuming and only represents a snapshot in time. While the survey data captures the essence of what is occurring, every good leader knows, things can change very quickly – even too quickly, as in times of crisis.
The attitude of Leadership is reflected in the gratitude of their Employees. ~ Redge
Leaders who are actively engaged with their teams are likely to dismiss the need for an employee opinion survey and we would tend to agree with them. The attitude of Leadership is reflected in the gratitude of their employees. The only way to get a real pulse for what is happening is to regularly walk the floor and engage with your teams.
Make the time to take the time to engage with your teams. A regular “walk and talk” will yield more benefits to you and your teams than any survey could ever provide. Acting on their suggestions and offering regular feedback will foster a culture of trust, respect, accountability, integrity, and open communication. For that, your employees will be truly grateful.
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Until Next Time – STAY lean
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Vergence Analytics
Thanks, Redge for writing on Employee Engagement (and so well) – this is a topic that needs a lot of discussion and focus.
Concentrating on employee engagement can help companies withstand, and possibly even thrive, in tough economic times. Gallup researchers in 2012 studied the differences in performance between engaged and actively disengaged work units and found that those scoring in the top half on employee engagement nearly doubled their odds of success compared with those in the bottom half.
So what surprises me is why senior leadership often times just pays lip service to such an important aspect of business performance and growth. One annual engagement survey, a bit of brouhaha over the survey results if they are not good enough against benchmarks, a few actions handed over to the HR teams and then business as usual till the next survey results which of course will not be any different from last year or the previous year. I agree that we don’t need employee opinion surveys to know where we stand.
Employee Engagement initiatives must be enmeshed into the day-to-day operations of the company – I firmly believe that if you take care of the people, the company results take care of themselves. And the best way to do that is what you point out – leadership teams must not fall into the trap of “hubris” – they must stay real, stay engaged and remain a “part” of the team.
Thanks again,
Regards,
Suchitra
I always appreciate your insights Suchitra. Thanks for reading and adding value to our post. I definitely agree that we need to stay real and stay engaged while remaining part of the team.